Prophets And The Old Testament

The prophet Isaiah played an important role in the development and expression of Judaism as a dynamic, living religion through the impact of his works. The impact of Isaiah is evident in both the development and expression of Judaism both in his time and in modern society, as his teachings, for the Jewish people, prove to be relevant to the times. Considered among Jews as one of the greatest prophets, Isaiah has contributed to and affected the life of adherents in the Jewish faith through his political and religious influence, his prophetic messages concerning

The Old Testament is the largest part of the bible nestled behind the leather binding in the front of the book. Unlike most books, told from one-person or even two this is comprised of multiple, some stories even having two different versions in another point of view; over time it has become a large collection of ancient texts written and re-written by different authors and editors over the many years. The stories show the ancient Israelites, they show the laws, and rituals, which make up their religion and the small embers, which will one day, turn to a flame that is Christianity. The Jewish people view these stories as collected in what they call the Torah, is the collection for what makes up their history and the promise that God gave to them, as well as their laws and what they worship today. For the Christians the Old Testament is still seen as sacred, but most place a stronger importance to the New Testament.

The prophets are difficult to interpret mainly due to misunderstandings about their function and form (Fee/Stuart p182). Most dictionaries define the word “prophecy”as ‘foretelling or prediction of what is to come. Using the prophets in this way is highly discerning, for less than 2% of OT prophecy is messianic; less than 5% describes the new covenant age and less than 1% concerns future events (Fee/Stuart p182). The prophets usually announced the immediate future of Judah, Israel and the surrounding nations, rather than our future. Those events were forthcoming for them but past for us (Fee/Stuart p182). The primary function of prophets as a spokesperson was to speak for God to their own contemporaries. Of the hundreds of prophets in

First, what must be looked at is who is a prophet and what is a prophet’s message. A prophet is an Israelite called on by God to express in poetic form the vision of God, His kingdom, the messianic age of peace, the work of the Holy Spirit, a new community of people, and the transformation of creation and humanity (VanGemeren 16). One example of a prophet is Amos, where the feeling of prophetic sense of an inner compulsion, “Surly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7-8).

Several times in the Bible, the Lord commissions a person to serve as a prophet and a leader for his people. While those who are commissioned are elevated by that choice, those commissions are not always positive. On the contrary, the Lord is frequently responding to something that people have done that He finds disappointing or upsetting. As a result, the commissioning often have an ominous tone to them, even though they reflect the Lord's pleasure with one of his servants. Isiaiah 6 and Jeremiah 1 both demonstrate how a commission was both an honor and a burden for the men who received them in the Bible. They also demonstrate that the prophets were tasked to do difficult things.

Jeremiah may be one of the most intriguing and revealing of the Old Testament prophets. With his continual return to god and the constant struggle between his heart and the voice of god. This elevates him as a human being and not just as an instrument of god (Paterson 144). He is one of the most human of prophets mentioned in the Old Testament and at the same time most Christ like in aspects of his sermons and works. His story has intrigued many for it is of human weakness and strength (Paterson 139). Let us now take a look at his life and at his works.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main themes of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The main themes of Isaiah are: (1) Son’s Names as Signs. (2) Servant. (3) Holy One of Israel. (4) Redeemer. (5) Eschatology. The main themes of Jeremiah are: (1) God’s Policy with Nations. (2) New Covenant. (3) False Prophets.

The history of how the Bible came into existence has been explored for centuries and is an active area of study today. There are many facets to the Bible and each has its own set of unique characteristics and teachings. The Old Testament is considered a contemporary guide for daily living, even though it was composed hundreds of years ago. Where did the Old Testament come from? What are some of the influences that shaped the Old Testament? What are the significant events of the Old Testament? In order to gain a better understanding of the Old Testament and its message to Christians, special consideration is given to its historical and cultural context, and to the major milestones in its development. Personal application of the teachings offered in this section of the Bible should be the aspiration of all Christians today.

The prophets are some of the most studied individuals in the bible, but often many people overlook the primary mission of the prophets. According to Bratcher “the prophets’ primary task was to call the people

As Lewis Chafer notes, continuity in the Bible is best shown through the fulfillment of prophecy (164). Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. And the Second Coming of Christ is the expected fulfillment of the New Testament prophecies. In both cases, and throughout the Old and the New Testaments, "highways of prophecy" are directed towards Advents of Christ.

There are many central themes that are in the Old Testament, and many may say that there is only one theme of the Old Testament, which is Jesus, and even though that is true in a lot of ways due to the fact that a lot of the minor prophets actually talk about the coming of Jesus, His death and His resurrection. However, I have discovered five main themes of the Old Testament that I found quite interesting. And in this paper I will discuss two of them. I believe one of the most important themes of the Old Testament is Covenant.

In the last section of the Bible there are two parts. The two parts are the Major and Minor Prophets. The Major prophets are in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The minor Prophets are in the books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, these books form that last segment of the Old Testament cannon. The authors of these books were the Hebrew prophets, which makes sense because a Hebrew prophet is a spokesperson for God. The twofold aspect of the prophet's ministry included declaring God's message for people of their day and foretelling God's actions in the future (Hindson). Thus, the prophet was also called a "seer" because he could see future events before

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

In comparison to this, the section of the Hebrew Scriptures known as ‘prophecy’ is a far harder collection from which to discern common threads in the sense of genre or content. Set as a continuation of the greater biblical narrative, the Prophecy section is best understood when divided further into two parts, that of the former prophets and the later prophets . The former prophets consist of the books of Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 kings and are generally referred to as ‘deutero-historical books’, expressing the role the theology of Deuteronomy plays in its

The Old Testament ends with the Minor Prophets. These prophets provided insight on many issues the Jews were facing. All of the prophets had the same ideas of a warning of impending judgment because of the nations’ sinfulness, the coming judgment, a call for repentance, and a promise of future deliverance of God’s grace. Idolatry, social injustice and religious ritualism are three issues that the prophets emphasized on in their teachings and can be inspired in the minds and hearts of believers today. The prophets’ teachings are just as important today as they were in the past. The teachings about God, the way man lived, social issues, and religious rituals are all relevant in the today’s society.